(During September 2013 I took part in #Septembart on Twitter. The idea was, each day during the month, to appreciate a work of art (in all its forms), or to participate in creating something. Although I wasn’t able to contribute every day, I enjoyed this exercise, and was delighted to realise just how much art there is around me or that I come into contact with. Some of this was explicitly religious, but I started thinking about how to see God in all art – in the subject, in the artist or creator, and in myself as I encounter it or seek it out. As part of my reflection on this, I wrote the following hymn, which is my final contribution to this year’s #Septembart.)

Lord, we praise you, great Creator;
All things have their source in you.
Thank you that your Spirit gives us
Skills to be creators too.

In your image, we are makers:
Fruits of labour, works of art;
Painting, sculpture, words, and music
Bursting from the fertile heart.

Art that shows the world around us:
Land and sea, all nature’s grace;
Art that celebrates creation:
Flower’s beauty, human face.

Art that shows the world inside us:
Hopes and dreams and doubts and fears;
Art to challenge and inspire us,
Bring to joy, or move to tears.

As we praise the works of others,
And create things of our own,
God, the Artist of Creation,
In all art may you be known.

@2013 Allan Dickinson

(These words have been registered with CCLI, so please feel free to use them as you wish, and include your usage in your regular CCLI report. The hymn has been written in the metre 8 7 8 7, so can be sung to several standard hymn tunes, e.g. ‘All for Jesus’, ‘Servant Song’, ‘Stuttgart’.)